Thompson Center steel being removed

2-week, $294,800 project slated to begin Monday

October 09, 2010|By Blair Kamin, Tribune architecture critic

Months after unstable granite panels were stripped from the exterior of the James R. Thompson Center, contractors on Monday will finally start removing the corroded structural steel that supported the pink and gray hunks of stone on the state office building, officials say.

The $294,800 project, which also will remove protective scaffolding around the building, is expected to take about two weeks, according to David Blanchette, a spokesman for the state's Capital Development Board.

In August 2009, a hunk of granite weighing about 600 pounds fell off the facade of the Thompson Center's pedestrian arcade and crashed onto the Clark Street sidewalk. No one was hurt, but an emergency analysis revealed that other pieces of granite were unstable, prompting state officials to announce last October that all of the arcade's granite panels — about 1,000 of them — would be removed at a cost of $1 million.

At the time, the Capital Development Board expected to rebuild the arcade by as early as last spring. But now, Blanchette said, the rebuilding awaits state funding, and the timing is far from certain because of Illinois' dire financial condition.

"The reason it took so long to get to this point," Blanchette said, was that "we had to wait until the funding was released. We had to go through getting some permits from the city of Chicago, which took some time."

Plans call for the steel supports to be replaced rather than retrofitted, while the granite will be rebuilt as a series of large panels rather than individual pieces as in the original design. Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, who designed the center, has been consulted and has signed off on the renovation project, Blanchette said.

The controversial 17-story center opened in 1985 as the State of Illinois Center and was renamed in 1992 for James Thompson, the four-term governor who was its prime patron.

The granite slabs, which weighed 200 to 600 pounds, were a decorative element that covered that arcade that rings the center's Clark, Randolph and LaSalle Street sides.

The panels also covered the Stonehenge-like mock columns that extended outward from the arcade, stepping downward as they neared the corner of Clark and Randolph.

Because the panels were decorative, removing their steel supports won't have an impact on the building's structural integrity, Blanchette said.

An official in the city's transportation department said the steel removal will be allowed from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. to minimize disruption to Loop traffic.

Last year, state officials said an emergency analysis found metal corrosion and faulty stone backing behind the problem panels. Further investigation revealed that the problem had spread to the structural steel.